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Two different Wildcats scored hat tricks before Marquette scored three goals as a team, and Villanova ended up with a 10-6 win over Marquette on Saturday afternoon in the Big East opener for both squads. The Golden Eagles fall to 4-7 overall while VU moves to 6-4.
It was 4-0 before Marquette got on the board with Claire Costanza's 17th goal of the year at the 14 minute mark of the first half. Carolyn Dottino-Buenahora notched two of those goals for Villanova, one on a free position shot to start the scoring for the game, and the second on a feed from Jessica Mucci to make it 4-0. After Costanza's goal, the Wildcats would almost keep Marquette off the board for the remainder of the first half, as it was only a Hayley Baas goal with 40 seconds left that gave MU two tallies in the game. In the meantime, Villanova got three goals from Kelsey Denihan, and thus it was 7-2 at the break.
Villanova was lethal with their swings in the first half. They ripped off just 10 shots in the 30 minutes, landing nine of them on frame and sending seven of those past MU goalie Sarah Priem. It wasn't even turnovers that harmed Marquette's chances as they had seven against five for the Wildcats. They were just missing the net when they shot the ball, forcing VU's Jaclyn Fraum to make just three saves on MU's 10 shots.
Marquette would give up three goals on Villanova's first four shots of the second half, and with 18 minutes left, things were teetering towards over. When MU couldn't score until there was less than 13 minutes left, that definitely made things over, as even four straight goals to close the game couldn't bring Marquette back at that point.
MU's goals came from six different players, and their only assist of the game came from a seventh, Emily Donovan. Villanova was led on the day by six points from Jessica Mucci. The crazy thing about that is all six came on assists, although I suppose that's not that surprising, given that Mucci broke Nova's all time assists record in their last game before coming to Milwaukee.
Up Next: It's back to the road for the Golden Eagles. They'll be out in Connecticut to face the Huskies next week Saturday. UConn sits at 5-4 on the season and takes on Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon in their Big East opener.